As of 12-14-24, there was no fishable ice on Strawberry other than a small capped section of Mud Creek. About a dozen other anglers and myself set out on this small portion of ice and gave each other adequate space to fish the area we had. I set out to find the deepest hole I could find, which ended up being 12 feet. I settled in while others spent time checking the ice closest to the open water (as you can see in this photo) and getting their fish houses set up. In my opinion, they missed the best bite of the morning. Strawberry trout as well as most trout love the first hour of the morning to feed. Our approach is always drill all the holes you want to fish and spend that first chunk of the day hole hopping and fishing without creating much noise on the ice. It will probably be your best stretch of the day.
Within the first hour of fishing I landed 5 cutthroats - decently aggressive fish, but soft biters that were only interested in small presentations. I could see them charging my lure from all depths - the chased up, they chased down, and most of the time they didn't need much convincing. The ticket ended up being a small glow jig that was 1/32 oz with a pink tube. I tipped it with a waxworm for added scent. I used the Black Magic i because I noticeably catch more fish because of the lightweight titanium Ice Strong tip that provides a soft bite indicator when I can't even feel the bite.
I only fished the morning as a snowstorm was starting to roll in and the bite slowed. I headed out with a tally over a dozen fish of upper slot size with a few rainbows mixed in. With the upcoming temps not dropping into the single digits, I foresee Strawberry being weeks away from capping. If you've found some luck so far this year on fishable ice, we'd love to hear it in the comments. Merry Christmas!